PREDICATE ACCUSATIVE OF PRESENT PARTICIPLE. 
225 
II. THE PREDICATE ACCUSATIVE OF THE PRESENT PARTI¬ 
CIPLE FOR THE PREDICATIVE INFINITIVE WITH ACCUSATIVE 
SUBJECT. 
It is interesting to trace the gradual springing up of the predicate accusa¬ 
tive of the present participle as a partial substitute for the predicative infini¬ 
tive with accusative subject. True, Dr. Zeitlin, as stated in Chapter XIV, 
section viii, p. 212 , claims that in Anglo-Saxon the infinitive was substituted 
for the participle, a claim earlier made for the Germanic languages as a whole 
by Becker and after him by other scholars, as is shown below. But the claim 
is untenable, I believe, either for Anglo-Saxon alone or for the Germanic lan¬ 
guages as a whole. 
To begin with Anglo-Saxon: as our statistics show, the predicate accusative 
of the present participle is practically unknown in Anglo-Saxon poetry, only 
four examples being found therein, each in a poem believed to have a Latin 
original, as follows: — 
Chr. 536: Gewitan him ba gongan to Hierusalem hseleb hygerofe in ba halgan 
burg geomormode, bonan hy God nyhst up stigende eagum segun, hyra Wilgifan. 
Chr. 891: Dger mon mseg sorgende folc gehyran, hygegeomor, hearde gefysed, 
cearum cwi&ende cwicra gewyrhtu forhte afserde. 
Gu. 1120: Ongon ba snottor hsele ar onbehtbegn sebeles neosan to bam 
halgan hofe, fond ba hlingendue fusne on forbsib frean unwenne gsesthaligne 
godes temple, soden sarwylmum. 
Charms IV. 55 (really prose): Ic ana wai ea rinnende ond ba nygon nsedran 
behealdab. 
In Early West Saxon, the predicate participle is rare, and, in the transla¬ 
tions, usually is traceable either directly or indirectly to a Latin predicate 
participle, though occasionally the Anglo-Saxon participle, especially if of 
slight verbal power, has other correspondents in the Latin (an accusative and 
infinitive, 2; a gerund in the ablative, 1; a predicate adjective, 3; an apposi- 
tive adjective, 1 ; a noun in the accusative, 1 ; an ablative absolute (passive), 1 ; 
no Latin, 1). The examples in full are: — 
Alfred (20): — 
Bede ( 8 ): — 
gefelan, ‘ feel/ ‘ perceive ' ( 2 ): 
— batiende, ‘ convalescing ' (1): 404.1 a : ba sona instepe gefelde ic mec 
batiende / werpende = confestim me melius habere sentirem. 
— werpende [-ie-\, ‘ recovering from illness ' (1): 404.l b : quoted in preceding. 
gemetan, ‘ find ' (2): — 
— sittende, ‘ sitting ' ( 1 ): 402.20 a : Da gemette he mec sittende, j ic sprsecan 
meahte = 291.8: me reuisens, inuenit sedentem, et iam loqui ualentem. 
— slcepende, ‘sleeping' (1): 244.3: ba gemette bone his gedoftan slcepende 
=> 193.17: invenit sodalem dormientem. 
geseon, ‘ see ’ (4): — 
— fleogende, ‘flying' ( 1 ): 214.16: Geseah he eac swylce ba wergan gastas 
burh baet fyr fleogende = 166.9: Uidit autem et dcemones per ignem uolantes 
incendia bellorum contra iustos struere. 
